Broken Wing

Andrina hadn’t known life to be kind.

She had the sort of pursed lip that didn’t come about naturally but was cemented as an expression. She admired that when a brown bird, clipped it’s wing, things ended quickly from there. She imagined their lives were a quick spiral from painful encounter to an equally repellent end. Instead she felt she had to live on with what she had learnt about the world, and wake up every morning.

It wouldn’t be known by her expression but she made the conscious decision, not to hold onto her nerves. Every morning, Andrina took a deep breath, just one. Today had started.

Andrina put on her worn-out slippers and made her way through her morning. She looked at the hand on the clock, which had a habit of pointing her in the right direction. It was just shy of nine o’clock and that meant she had more than enough hours to correct her crappy, crappy month, but it was up to her and it started today.

She thought there might be 13 reasons to go like a clipped bird but she had her right wing and she could still stand. And while sometimes that didn’t feel enough, at those moments she forced herself, through the pain. But, still managed to exceed 13 reasons to stay.